Meredith magic sees Emo past Ballylinan and into the semi-finals of the Laois SFC 'B'

Emo are safely through to the semi-finals of the 2024 Senior 'B' Football Championship after they had too much for Ballylinan on Friday evening in Stradbally. 

Ballylinan were boosted with the return of the 2023 Intermediate Footballer of the Year Gary Walsh but Emo kept tabs on him throughout and made sure of their Senior status in qualifying for the semi-finals.

Emo 1-15

Ballylinan 2-7

Ballylinan kicked the game’s opening score courtesy of a free from the returning Gary Walsh. Niall Gorman was also shown a yellow card for his foul with only two minutes on the clock. Walsh kicked a second free to give his side a two-point lead after four minutes.

Emo finally kicked into the gear and got the next three points on the trot. Ross Meredith kicked two of those with his second coming after he had performed two dummy-solos before he split the posts for his side. Darren Strong opened his account with a well-taken point from play.

Seamus Lacey went on a strong run from midfield and ended up being one-on-one with Emo goalkeeper Eoin Butler. The latter stood tall to deny Lacey’s effort and put the ball out for a 45’. Ballylinan kicked on and raised two white flags in succession as Joey Walsh and Cathail Dunne slotted the ball between the posts. Butler was called into action for a second time as he made a great save from Gary Walsh after Pauraic McEvoy launched a long ball in. Colm Poole scored a free for Emo to level the sides at four points apiece.

Cathal Casey popped up a minute later to finally get the better of Butler between the Emo sticks. His goal was a superb finish into the roof of the net. The goal seemed to spark a bit of life into Emo as they hit a purple patch which resulted in them getting the next six scores unanswered before the break. Colm Poole curled over a free of his left before Ross Meredith added three scores on the trot. Shane Murphy came forward from full-back to raise a white flag and cap off a well-worked team move. Murphy stayed forward and won the resulting kick-out to put Poole through on goals but his shot was saved over the bar by Ballylinan goalkeeper Tom Wright. That left the score at 0-9 to 1-4 in favour of Emo.

Emo kept up their intensity at the beginning of the second period with Meredith and Paul Lawlor putting the ball between the posts to give them a healthy advantage. Gary Walsh (free) and Cathal Casey got a point each in reply but Ballylinan's next score wouldn't come for another 12 minutes. In that time, Emo controlled the ball superbly with Ballylinan only given one scoring chance in that time. Gary Walsh was once again denied by Butler from close-range. Darren Strong (two) and a Meredith free saw Emo go five points in front and they looked to be cruising towards victory. However, Cian Langford was shown a straight red card after 45 minutes for a strike on Joey Walsh with the Ballylinan player getting a yellow card for his troubles.

That Langford sending off mattered little in the grand scheme of things as Emo ended up raising a green flag to put the game to bed soon after. Emo won the ball in midfield and the ball ended up in Darren Strong's hands. He found Lawlor, who in turn found Meredith and blasted the ball past Tom Wright to all but seal the victory with 10 minutes to go. Mikey Walsh broke Ballylinan's mini-drought before the Meredith goal but the latter took his tally to 1-8 for Emo's final score after 51 minutes.

Emo's game management was excellent for the remainder of the game as they just played keep ball and did so impressively. Ballylinan ended up scoring a late consolation goal courtesy of Pauraic McEvoy after he followed in a Seamus Lacey effort and palmed the ball into the Emo net.

Emo progress into the semi-finals of the competition while last year's Intermediate champions drop into the dreaded Relegation section of the Senior Football Championship.